Like every other game from Remedy, Control is going to have a signature gameplay element. If Alan Wake offers players with fighting darkness with light, Quantum Break brings the time-warping gunplay or Max Payne has slowing zooming bullets, this new game will allow you to bend your supernatural with various abilities.
"Previous Remedy games tended to be quite linear," said Mikael Kasurinen, Game Director. "Here, we have shifted our goal so that we have more complex scenarios with our different abilities and you choose the way you want to fight."
The new game is said to have some of the most dynamic and fluid fights among those from the same developer. Re-mapping the controller for this game is quite intuitive. For example, by choosing the right stick, players can slam down onto their enemies after levitating or rapidly changing between forms for the Service Weapon. Levitation seems to be an enjoyable experience, just like you can swim but it’s in the air. The action of evading is also worth a try. It lets you strafe while in the middle of a flight. However, if you don’t prefer the controls, you can still remap these controls to fit your playstyle.
The game offers a non-linear progression to make it more compelling for players. Remedy Entertainment prefers comparing it to the “Metroidvania”. According to Sam Lake, Creative Director of Control, “Metroidvania is a good description in some ways. You are unlocking the world as you go and discovering new places.” The main character named Jesse can unlock her new abilities each time she gets close to Objects of Power that she finds in the world. These abilities can be included in your arsenal when you find them in a non-linear process. Keep in mind that some places may be inaccessible until players have some certain prerequisites.
"Through the main campaign, you upgrade your security clearance through this world," said Kasurinen. "And to do that you can actually unlock more different kind of doors and gateways. Early in the game, you will face certain doors you can't access yet. As you go through the campaign and through the world, you get a higher clearance and you can go back to these areas that you had to skip initially. On top of that, we have also areas that are limited by the ability you have, for instance, levitation."
The developer aims to provide players with more creativity and freedom in the way players can approach combat by giving a various set of modifiers and perks which players can choose for Jesse or for their abilities. When it comes to facing off the enemies, players have to prepare tactical plans. This depends on which foes they are facing since some are considered weaker to some gun variants or abilities.
"It means that the combination of what abilities you have, how you have upgraded them, what weapon mods and character mods you have actually affects the way you fight your way through these scenarios," Kasurinen stated.
Facing off different types of enemies is usually considered one of the most challenging parts in a battle. Players may have to compete with both ground heavy enemies full of shotguns and those that can fly around to attack them. Some enemies are not actually human, for example, the Hiss Clusters that are large, glowing red spheres. These enemies will continuously heal your other enemies, so to stop them, the first thing you should do is to take out these Hiss. And let’s not forget the Astral Spike. This bizarre entity comes from a different dimension and looks like a great big ball made of spikes. Interestingly enough, it can be really unpredictable!
Due to the collection of different sandbox gameplay and enemy types, Remedy Entertainment thought that it should rebuild the A.I. totally from the ground up.
"We have basically a sandbox environment and looking at previous games they were more linear," Kasurinen mentioned. "Let's say more static, more predefined. We scripted every single enemy where they appeared and how and so on. In this game, it's all procedural. The enemies are spawned by a system and all of these things can support this world that is open-ended.
Being called as the Encounter Director, this development system brings the correct pacing to the gameplay when the game has to solve the problem of the enemy encounters size and what the Hiss would be doing in the game world at that moment. This systemic A.I program from Remedy has to work a lot since the matter of which area players are in or which level they reach does change the enemy encounters completely. One of the main reason is that every sector of the Bureau contains different sets of foes.
Another worthwhile thing about Control is the way players can wreak havoc in different environments. Every area of Control is built with that concept, so you can see that the Oldest House has a savage architectural structure.
"We chose that style also because it gives us this kind of simplicity of form and all these materials that we can take and use that work really well for destruction," Kasurinen cleared. "Like we have concrete, wood, steel, glass – things that you can understand and recognize, and you can predict how they will behave."
You can lift and then launch an object with telekinesis by pointing the camera in the general direction until a highlight is shown around that item. You can lift up such large things like desks or trucks and throw small parts of items like a tripod for example. To be specific, you can choose to throw quite most things you see. However, some materials are a little bit hard to portray.
"Glass is always hard to get the right, with how it behaves and how it shatters. It's easy to do bullet holes but if you try to throw a lift truck through the glass it might not work exactly how you want it," said Kasurinen.
Nevertheless, what you can do in the game is entirely interesting. For the record, you can even take things hanging on the wall, an extinguisher, for example, to throw at your enemies.
The game is going to be released in full version this summer.